There is an ongoing need to provide an efficient and effective point of sale card package, to support retail sales of credit-card-like cards, made of plastic, paper or other appropriate materials. Previous attempts at providing such point of sale packages have not been entirely satisfactory, however. Further improvement is desirable.
In general, prior point of sale card packages have entailed cumbersome construction, involving the use of highly specialized equipment, and non-standard-sized sheets of cardboard or paper as an intermediate, for forming the card package. It is desirable that an improved card package, and methods for constructing such a card package, be capable of utilizing standard sheet sizes, such as 8½″ by 11″ letter paper, which can be processed on equipment which is commonly available to those in the business of providing such cards.
It is also desirable, that an improved card package provide a large area for receiving printed text and/or graphics, relating to the sale and use of the card contained within the package. For example, it is desirable that the card package include a sufficiently large surface area to display the terms and conditions of issuance and use of the card attached to the package, without the need for resorting to extremely fine print, or the inclusion of additional pages of printed instruction being enclosed within the card package. For efficiency and effectiveness of manufacturer, at reasonable cost and with minimal environmental impact, it is desirable that the card package itself, includes sufficient surface area to accommodate whatever printed text and graphics are required for sale and use of the card. Prior point of sale card packages are typically too small to meet these requirements.
It is further desirable that an improved point of sale card package, and methods for constructing such a package, provide considerable flexibility with regard to the manner of application and content of the text and graphics printed onto the package. For example, it is desirable that an improved package, and method of constructing such a package, allow for both pre-printing of the package, prior to attachment of the card to the package, and also for dynamic printing of text and graphics onto the package substantially contemporaneously with attachment of the card to the card package. It is also desirable that the dynamically printed text or graphics can be uniquely linked to the information printed on or encoded into the card.
For security reasons, it is desirable that an improved card package be capable of completely enclosing and sealing the card within the package, in a manner which precludes damage to or tampering with the card, while it is in the package, but yet is still readily openable by the purchaser and/or a legitimate user of the card.